Bernie Sanders launches 'Feel the Bern' Snapchat filters in lead up to Iowa caucuses

WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign launched a series of paid Snapchat filters this week that will run in the nine-day lead-up to the Iowa caucuses, all in the hopes of mobilizing young voters for his insurgent campaign.

Sanders has narrowed the gap in polls for the Feb. 1 caucuses, the first contest in the presidential nominating process. But his success hinges on the participation of young voters, traditionally the hardest to mobilize.

The campaign hopes the filters will remind young voters, who use Snapchat in large numbers, to get out and caucus.

"We’re leveraging Snapchat to help us turn out young caucusgoers in Iowa who know Sen. Sanders is the best candidate to make college affordable, fight climate change and take on a corrupt political system," Sanders' Digital Director Kenneth Pennington said in a statement to Mashable.

A Snapchat filter the Sanders campaign paid for in the lead up to the Iowa caucuses.

Image: Courtesy of the Sanders campaign.

Paid Snapchat advertising is quickly becoming a tool that many campaigns are utilizing in 2016 in order to reach a younger audience.

Survey data conducted jointly by a Democratic and Republican polling firm in November found two-thirds of millennials on Snapchat are likely to vote in 2016 — higher than the percentage of millennials who don't use Snapchat.

Priorities USA, a super PAC backing Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, has also paid for Snapchat advertising, including a "Deport Trump" filter that coincided with a GOP presidential debate in Nevada, which has a large Hispanic population.

A filter paid for by a super PAC backing Clinton.

Image: Courtesy of Priorities USA

Snapchat's geofilters are typically tied to a specific location, however, so these particular filters will only appear for users in Iowa. Sorry, nationwide Bernie Sanders fans.

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